Sleeping rough in Port-au-Prince : an ethnography of street children and violence in Haiti / J. Christopher Kovats-Bernat.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kovats-Bernat, J. Christopher.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Street children--Haiti--Port-au-Prince.

Street children.

Sociology, Urban--Haiti--Port-au-Prince.

Sociology, Urban.

Port-au-Prince (Haiti)--Social conditions.

Port-au-Prince (Haiti).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (257 p.)

Place of Publication:

Gainesville, Fla. : University Press of Florida, c2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this ethnographic analysis of the cultural lives of children who are ""sleeping rough"" in Port-au-Prince, Kovats-Bernat expands the traditional bounds of anthropological thought, which have only recently permitted a scholarly treatment of ""the child"" as a valuable informant, relevant witness, and active agent of social change. Refuting the commonplace notion that street children are unsocialized, Hobbesian mongrels, the author finds these children adopt strategies to carve a social and cultural space for themselves on the contested streets of Port-au-Prince, individually and collectively

Contents:

Cover; Table of Contents ix; List of Illustrations xi; List of Tables xii; Preface xiii; List of Abbreviations xvii; Introduction 1; Ti Amos 19; 1 Salon Pèp: Street Life and Society in Port-au-Prince 24; Bèl Marie 63; 2 Ritus Ruptus: The Street as a Site of Passage 68; Blak Lovli 79; 3 Zenglendinaj e Arimaj: The Street-Child "Problem" and the Paramilitary Solution 83; Michel 105; 4 Violenz Lari: The Violence of the Street Economy from Below 108; Tifrè 142; 5 Lafanmi Selavi: "The Family Is Life" 144; Dezalin 179; 6 Aprè Dans, Tanbou Lou: After the Dance, the Drum Is Heavy 183

7 All That We Know: The Poorest Countries and the State of the World 195Notes 213; Bibliography 217; Index 225

Notes:

First cloth printing, 2006. First paperback printing, 2008.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [217]-224) and index.

ISBN:

0-8130-4001-9

OCLC:

746746862